I commissioned this bass about 5 months ago, and it came in yesterday. The general idea behind it was to take the aesthetics of a Precision bass, and meld modern features with it.
One piece swamp ash body with a Traslucent White Blonde finish and tort pickguard. 3pc Maple neck with dark Wenge stringers, and a beautifully grained Wenge board. Two Nordstrand Big Splits with a Bartolini 3-band pre with push-pull active/passive. All black Hipshot hardware.
Here's the pic I took after unboxing it and taking all the packing material out.
Tone, feel, and playability are phenomenal. The builder, Brian (SaintMez here on TB), not only created the bass that I'd envisioned, but surpassed my expectations in almost every conceivable way. His expertise was invaluable during the planning stages of the build, and he took my rough idea and turned it into an expertly crafted instrument.
I've played dozens of high end, boutique, and custom basses (some costing two or three times as much), and I would put this bass up against any of them.
Tonal versatility was a primary goal for this build, and the bass delivers. Passive with the blend rolled all the way to the neck pup is bang-on P bass. With the blend in the center, you can get a tight, modern dual-soapbar tone with the preamp engaged, or you can add some warmth to the mids in passive. Rolled 75% towards the bridge with a bump to the low mids gets you very close to a Stingray, and passive with the blend a little bit towards the neck will do a great Geddy Lee impersonation.
The neck is awesome - very thin (maybe only a tiny bit thicker front-to-back than my Ibanez), but with a fairly pronounced C-shape that fits the hand very comfortably. Even though the string spacing and neck dimensions are a bit bigger than my Ibanez, fast runs and complex shapes are practically effortless to play.
I'm going to try and figure out how to upload some clips, so stay tuned!
Link Removed
One piece swamp ash body with a Traslucent White Blonde finish and tort pickguard. 3pc Maple neck with dark Wenge stringers, and a beautifully grained Wenge board. Two Nordstrand Big Splits with a Bartolini 3-band pre with push-pull active/passive. All black Hipshot hardware.
Here's the pic I took after unboxing it and taking all the packing material out.
Tone, feel, and playability are phenomenal. The builder, Brian (SaintMez here on TB), not only created the bass that I'd envisioned, but surpassed my expectations in almost every conceivable way. His expertise was invaluable during the planning stages of the build, and he took my rough idea and turned it into an expertly crafted instrument.
I've played dozens of high end, boutique, and custom basses (some costing two or three times as much), and I would put this bass up against any of them.
Tonal versatility was a primary goal for this build, and the bass delivers. Passive with the blend rolled all the way to the neck pup is bang-on P bass. With the blend in the center, you can get a tight, modern dual-soapbar tone with the preamp engaged, or you can add some warmth to the mids in passive. Rolled 75% towards the bridge with a bump to the low mids gets you very close to a Stingray, and passive with the blend a little bit towards the neck will do a great Geddy Lee impersonation.
The neck is awesome - very thin (maybe only a tiny bit thicker front-to-back than my Ibanez), but with a fairly pronounced C-shape that fits the hand very comfortably. Even though the string spacing and neck dimensions are a bit bigger than my Ibanez, fast runs and complex shapes are practically effortless to play.
I'm going to try and figure out how to upload some clips, so stay tuned!
Link Removed
